Laptop insurance

catmiaow

I am buying a laptop for my mums birthday, she wants the insurance to cover breakdown and accidental damage. Well Curry's offer overpriced insurance at £159!

I have looked at a few companies, such as Switched on Insurance but not heard of them. Has any one used them before?

If not could anyone recommend a cheap insurance company?

Thanks

InsideInsurance

Any "gadget" or mobile type insurance tends to be fairly poor quality because too many people "accidently" drop it or knock a drink over it when they feel they want a new computer. Therefore the insurance policies tend to have restrictive wording and its strictly applied. Many are also not new for old.

For AD/ loss/ Theft your mothers Home insurance would cover the item, you obviously just need to check limits are all up to date and appropriate. That would just leave you exposed to breakdown but many laptops come with a 2 year warranty anyway

chanz4

Take into account the excess and cost its not worth it. Laptop prices have come so much down. Also contents insurance covers them if you ask for it

MandyAW92

Alot of companies that sell laptops tend to give you decent warranties on the products you are buying and if you enquire with them they will offer you decent deals on replacing the laptop. The rest as InsideInsurance said would be covered by Home Insurance

monkey_writer

Hi InsideInsurance,

I am unfortunately unable to get household insurance on the property I live in at present.

Are there any laptop / gadget insurance companies you would recommend?

At the moment I'm looking to either go with
https://www.helpucover.co.uk/product/gadget-mobile-phone/
or
http://www.photoguard.co.uk/ on the 'Select' policy.

Thanks!

InsideInsurance

monkey_writer wrote: »

Are there any laptop / gadget insurance companies you would recommend?

Personally, unless I was intending to commit fraud then I would just put the money in the bank.

The two covers you have listed are very different in terms of level of cover etc. Lets assume that you are talking about a camera, a canon 600D with the IS lens kit and the HelpUCover policy

New Price: £450
XS: £50
Secondhand price £325

Therefore the maximum settlement you'd ever get is £275. Looking at the terms they are as usual fairly restrictive in terms of due care, having to be in your possession etc and therefore you may have a fight on your hands to get any claim paid out as they'll argue you werent taking reasonable actions when you dropped the camera without having had the strap on etc.

Balance that against the £13 a month so £156 a year premium and it doesnt stack up well at all. My home insurance is "only" £200 for unlimited cover on new for old and £60,000 of high risk items world wide.

With that premium the insurance out costs the item after circa 18 months. With my car it takes over 1,000 months for the premium to meet the sum insured.

monkey_writer

Thanks for your quick and helpful reply!

I looked closer at HelpUCover and realised they don't cover laptops, so they're out.

I need to insure a laptop worth £1300 and a camera worth £3000 (new for old prices, though the models I have aren't available any longer - that's the price of the current equivalent models, but very close to what I paid) so it would take 38 years for the photoguard insurance (£113/year UK only) to outcost the equipment.

Photoguard do depreciate laptops value once they reach a certain age, but I assume that would be in the case of a full replacement only, not for repairs.

Buzby

It may be better to pursue household contents as an option, and add the out of home cover for the moveable items. If you are unable to get cover, what would make any difference to gadget cover - apart from the greater expense?